The Armor of God - Ephesians 6:10-18

Ephesians 6:10-11
10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Every day we wake in the midst of war. Spiritual warfare rages daily in our lives. Some days we are fully engaged in battle and some days we are walking the path to the next battle. Whatever the day, the war rages on. The enemy never rests and his scheming is persistent. He relentlessly pursues us, even as we walk the peaceful path, waiting for the perfect opportunity to attack.

Ephesians 6:12-13
12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Battle, for an unprotected warrior, is dangerous and costly. Remember, in spiritual warfare, the price is not our physical, mortal, earthly life but rather our spiritual, eternal life in God's Kingdom. For this reason, God has made provision for us with six pieces of weaponry. Paul describes these, five pieces of armor and one offensive weapon, in his letter to the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 6:14-17

Armor:
1. the belt of truth / 6:14
2. the breastplate of righteousness / 6:14
3. boots of (feet fitted with) the readiness (which comes from the gospel of peace) / 6:15
4. the shield of faith / 6:16 5. the helmet of salvation / 6:17

Offensive Weapon:
1. the sword of the Spirit / 6:17

If we are to win the battles of this spiritual warfare, we must possess and utilize all of the weaponry that we have been provisioned. These items are not freely granted but require us to take a pro-active role in their development and application. Being able to successfully wield the shield of faith, or sword of the Spirit can only be accomplished by well discipled individuals. Those of us, and there are very few, who have developed and mastered the potential of all of these items are capable of defending themselves and possibly others from any attack that Satan can mount.

When we are walking the peaceful path and life is good, we tend to neglect our armor maintenance. The armor gets stowed away in the footlocker because it is cumbersome and time consuming to maintain. Ask any military person in the middle of a war zone, how far they get from their weapon and armor, and you will find the answer to be that they are never without it. We are always in a war zone and should never be away from the only security we have.

Ephesians 6:18
18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

With all of our armor in place, there is one more thing we must do. We must remain in constant communication with the commander. Prayer is that communication. Our warfare against Satan's spiritual forces calls for intense prayer, i.e., praying "in the Spirit," "on all occasions," "with all kinds of prayers," "for all the saints," "and always keep praying." Prayer is to be seen as not just another weapon, but as part of the actual conflict itself, where the victory is won for ourselves and others by working together with God himself. To fail to pray diligently, with all kinds of prayer, in all situations, is to surrender to the enemy.

So in the hustle and bustle of our busy world, whether good day or bad, we must remember that we are in the middle of the war. We have to keep a daily concerted effort in caring and maintaining our armor. Our spiritual, eternal lives depend on it.

God Bless, and remember to put on the full armor of God!

The Distance

I live in a world that is so alien to who I am now. I gave my life to Christ three years ago this month. Since that time God has done amazing things in my life. The world that I live in now is no different than the one I lived in three years ago, so why then do I see it as alien. It's because it is me that is different. I know that I'm different but I didn't realize how much or to what extent.

I was talking with a good friend the other day and he was telling me a story about a co-worker. He began the story by telling me that this guy was the exact opposite of me. I was interested in knowing what his opinion of "the exact opposite of me" was, so I listened as he told me of a guy who was very intimidating, confrontational and always getting into some kind of fight. The rest of the story is not important to my point. What is important is that my friend, who only knows me since my salvation, sees me as the exact opposite of this other guy. What he didn't know was that ten years ago I was that other guy! It was such an eye opener to me. I had despised that side of me and one of the things that I always ask God to do for me, is to give me patience and make me a kinder person. To have someone whom I respect tell me that those prayers have been answered, at least in some way, humbled me. Thank you Barry!

The point of all this is that I have been feeling a distance in my relationship with God. They say that all Christ followers go through this and indeed I have before but not like recently. I have had a lot of things to deal with lately and even though I have been praying daily I haven't felt God's presence. This is a very uncomfortable feeling. I need God in my life every moment of every day. I'm kind of selfish like that. I began to question God's existence in my life; is he really there? Not is he literally there, I know that he is but is he there for me? Is he listening to me? The conversation with my friend was the first situation that started my journey back home. I realized that God has been working every day in my life. Then a few other prayers answered began to draw me nearer. Saturday morning as I rode along listening to some worship music, I was praising God for the things he has done for me and I was asking for his forgiveness for my shortcomings when he laid this on me:

Why O' God
Do you place me at a distance
Alone in this sea
Of wretched existence
The enemy speaks
His voice is so loud
But your voice is quiet
It's slowly drowned out
My life is a mess
It's out of control
The storms just keep coming
They're taking their toll
The waves are crashing
The wind is at full gale
I need you O' Lord
If I am to prevail
These storms are my burden
They're my cross to bear
But without you God
I haven't a prayer
I humble myself
And fall on my face
I ask for your mercy
And pray for your grace
This distance you've placed me
Is by your design
A faith building exercise
Your glory defined
I'm back in the harbor
Safe and secure
I welcome the next storm
To boldly endure
And when I feel a distance
I'll no longer fear
For I'll know that it's my God
Drawing me near

I am not a poet and believe me as the words of this poem flooded my mind, I was yet again humbled. God is always, ALWAYS there! My life has changed because I asked God to change it. The changes are gradual and not self evident but they are real and others have noticed. The distance is a circumstance initiated by us. Disobedience in any form is a pre-cursor to this circumstance. When God places us at a distance, it is always a faith building exercise that strengthens us in the end. Keep praying and obeying and you will make it through the storm. Don’t fear The Distance!

Blog Block

It's been over a month since my last post. Wow time flies when you're busy. At first I really didn't have anything to blog about. Then I did but didn't have any time to sit and blog. Then I just kind of blew it off and the topic, which was relevant to the time period, became irrelevant. I had to ask myself if blogging was something I really should be doing. I feel that if I'm going to be writing something, that is out there for God only knows who to read, it better be, at the very least, worth reading. I came to the conclusion this morning that I was taking "blogging" way to seriously.

I originally started blogging last fall during my "Truth Project" class and used it as a tool to aid in facilitating the class. I set the blog up as private, open only to class participants. The problem was that only a couple of the participants were able to use it. After about three posts, with no one following, I just gave up on it. When my father died in December I was truly inspired to write about some things that had been on my mind. Did I mention that my spiritual gift is teaching? I began to teach…I mean blog. That is exactly what caused my "BLOG BLOCK"!

Don't get me wrong, I do think that I still need to be informative and interesting but let's face it; blogging is just saying what's on your mind. Sometimes it is good and sometimes it's just ok. Hopefully it is never terrible. The point is that you just do it and over time your point of view is established and hopefully your followers keep coming back to see what's on your mind. So from here on out, it's just whatever comes up!

Memorial Stones

Yesterday was a day of reflection. It began early in the morning while watching the CBS morning show. They reviewed the last five decades of last century. I lived through four of them. It's really amazing to see all that has happened since then. Then I listened to a three part "Focus on the Family" featuring Ravi Zacharias recorded earlier this year which became the most requested and number one airing broadcast of the year. Ravi spoke of remembering our past. He read the complete chapter Joshua 4. God spoke to Joshua and told him to have twelve men, one from each tribe of Israel, to go into the middle of the river and pick a stone. They were to carry it on their back to the place where they made camp that night. They came up out of the river and made camp at Gilgal and Joshua took the stones and placed them there.

Joshua 4:21-24; He said to the Israelites, "In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.' For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God."

We must remember that where we are today is because we stand on the deeds and merits of those who came before us. This great nation was founded on Judeo-Christian worldview, God in the center. Ravi pointed out that when Abraham Lincoln gave his second inaugural address which was less than 800 words, he invoked the name of God fourteen times. Today if a president were to invoke God's name once, he would run the risk of hostility from the media. We have forgotten. Talk about God or Jesus in public and see where it gets you. An atheist group has filed a lawsuit attempting to ban prayer from the Obama inaugural ceremony and also ban using the sentence "So help me God," in the presidential oath. God is the designer of law and government. He gives the power of governing to the magistrate and it is through that oath that the magistrate is sanctified. We have forgotten. We have dismantled our memorial stone monuments and with the stones built self honoring, self serving institutions and in so doing we have wiped away the memory of who we are and how we got here. We have become a "stiffed neck people."

My prayer is that in this New Year we will find ourselves again. This nation is still the greatest nation on God's earth but our light is dimming. The election of this past year gives us a new leader who promises change. We must pray for our new president. Whatever your political view, you must pray for our president elect. Pray for wisdom and strength and pray that he would follow the word of God. There has never been a more urgent time than now. I believe this is probably the most defining moment in American History. We need God and we need to see God do immeasurably more. And then we need to go down into the river and bring up stones to place as memorial stones. In the future when our descendants ask us, "What do these stones mean?" We can say, they remind us that what God did was so we might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and that we might always fear the LORD our God.

Road Signs

I have been struggling all week with this post. I'm pretty limited with my time and opportunities to write. I will probably be lucky to get one post done per week. I feel that with so few posts that I should make them, at the very least, interesting. I really want to give people something to think about. I had been praying for God to bless me with something to write.

Early Monday morning I was awakened with some pretty profound thoughts and as I lay in bed, a few hours from the alarm clock waking me for work, I thought I should get right up and start writing while it was fresh and I was so inspired. I toyed with the thought and then determined that rest was more important, so I went back to sleep. I woke up around 4am and for the life of me couldn't remember much of what was so profound to me except that it had something to do with road signs, the yield sign in particular.

All week long as time slipped by I kept thinking to myself that I should have gotten up. What was this nagging notion that I had let something good get away? Then I thought of Tim's sermon on Sunday about God working in his own time, about having faith and releasing God. I had been praying for God to bless me with something of worth and had expected his grace to happen when I sat down to start writing. I had forgotten about God's timeline. I was working in my timeline and expected my prayer to be answered in that timeline. God may have answered my prayer as I slept. Instead of getting up when the gift was given, I went back to sleep. Did I miss God? I think that we all have those moments when we let our flesh interfere with God's work. Maybe that's why the yield sign stuck out in my mind. Maybe if I had yielded to God and gotten out of his way I would have released him to do the work I had requested.

The Wealth Vault

Talking with a cherished member of my church family, Bill Konneker, after dad's funeral Wednesday, it was very comforting to know that someone else had realized, or had given a known reality more thought. Why does it seem that we only come to realize the importance of people or should I be more specific in saying, our relationship with people, when we are gathered at the funeral or wake of someone that we all have loved? What worldly things can we take with us when we go? Do we really understand that things of this world are just that? How do all of the worldly things we have acquired compare to those relationships? How can it be that we can place more importance on material things than on the one true thing that God has given us for eternity? Relationship defines the true essence of our creator. It's all about relationship. We go about our daily routines in this hustle bustle world, dedicating our lives to building wealth but can we take the kind of wealth that we treasure the most, with us when we go? How do you measure your wealth? Is it the nice bank account or 401k you have spent your life building or the beautiful home with new cars in the garage? May I suggest, that maybe in God's kingdom, these things are worthless?

Looking around the many faces of family and friends at my dad's service and burial, it was evident that he was dearly loved. My dad was the kind of person who always put everyone else's needs before his. He spent his life helping family and friends right up until the very end. He inspired people to go above and beyond the normal, as evident in the gracious letter and gift, which he treasured, sent to him by a friend who in his own words said that he and dad had the kind of relationship that couldn't be explained. They seemed to be at the opposite ends of the relationship spectrum.

There is a reason for that. There is a reason for everything. God created us to be in relationship. We are meant to be in relationship with him and relationship with each other. Gen 2:18, The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone." Aloneness is contrary to God's nature; in all eternity, there had never been aloneness before. When confronted by the Pharisees in Matthew 22:36-40, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind'. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
It can't be any clearer. God's greatest desire is for us to be wealthy in relationships. Whatever we must do to exist in this world we must do. Beyond that we must learn to invest every second left in building relationships, because in the end they ARE all we can take with us!

Two things I would like to leave you with. The words of my dad's friend…. the one at the opposite end of the spectrum…

Dear Roy,
It was great to see you up close the other day instead of when we pass each other in our vehicles. You always have something to say about my running. Little did you know that I see you as a "runner of Life" and you are running a great race. Us runners have medals and trophies and it is about time you had your own, so here it is - about time!.
Wishing you quiet joys.
Your friend,
Mark Hopping

…and a poem found with some other personal effects belonging to my dad. The poem was written in his handwriting, probably copied from the newspaper which he read faithfully for many years.

There must be something after death.
behind the toil of a man.
There must exist a God Divine,
who is working out a plan.
And this brief journey that we know,
as life must really be,
The gateway to a finer world,
that someday we shall see.
-author unknown

It meant so much to him that he copied it and left it to be found for those who may have had questions about his relationship with God. I am not one of those because I was fortunate to have this question answered by him personally, and also by God's revelation to me. These two things are simple evidence that my dad believed that building wealth in relationships was more important than building wealth in any other thing. What will you fill your vault with?

I'm gonna miss ya dad……we all are……but we will see you again.